


We loved each other, mostly for the hats

by EzekielJK



Category: Original Work, Team Fortress 2
Genre: Asian Character(s), Asian-American Character, Cars, Computer Programming, Demolition Man - Freeform, Fast Cars, Friendship, Halloween, High School, M/M, Male Friendship, Maps, Moving, Moving On, Multi, Platonic Relationships, Robot/Human Relationships, Robots, Scout - Freeform, Trading, bots, demoman - Freeform, earbuds, goonies, steam, trading cards
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-17
Updated: 2021-03-17
Packaged: 2021-03-26 12:40:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,241
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30106107
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EzekielJK/pseuds/EzekielJK
Kudos: 1





	We loved each other, mostly for the hats

My best friend Kyle and I would stay up late every Friday night to play games. Sure, we lived miles away from each other but that didn't bother us much, we both had good enough internet to play Team Fortress 2. TF2 was sort of the basis of our entire friendship after all since it was the only reason we started hanging out into the first place. It kind of is amazing how you can go to the same school and even have the same classes but never once speak to each other until someone mentions the latest virtual hat they had traded for. It just turned out that we both were into computers. I never really branched out though, but for Kyle, his second love was cars. I'd joke that his "second girlfriend" was his prized Dodge Charger, while simultaneously making a different joke on how I'd be the only one who'd put up with his obsession. Eventually our group got a little bigger: Jake the required "smart Asian kid" and Kyle's older brother Elliot who was obsessed with magic tricks joined our Steam Chat. We really were a weird bunch, a real "Goonies with computers" group.

But highschool ends. Elliot graduated first and it became pretty obvious that he wasn't going to be as involved in our group as he once was. To keep the numbers even, Kyle coded up a bot on our custom server named "ElliBot." He always did try to put a happy spin on everything. The second to leave our group was Jake. I should be happy for the guy. He was always the smartest of us and getting picked up to work for the NSA at that young of an age is impressive. Too bad that that doesn't leave much time for Friday Night TF2. I didn't even notice that a bot named "Jake BOT" started being populated into our dwindling server.

For a long time, it was just me and Kyle on weird maps yammering on about our changing lives. Kyle was at college studying marketing (because of course someone who had spent years in trading servers would learn to trade stocks instead of fictional earbuds). I never got liked school and I especially wasn't about to go and take more of it. Instead, I decided to stay near my hometown working construction and other "manly things" as Kyle would say, mocking the fact that I couldn't ever keep up with his own interests with cars. I guess that they never felt "manly" enough for me. Regardless, what I do is exhausting work but I love it. I especially love that it gives me time on the weekends to mindlessly shoot colorful bots with rocket launchers. Kyle has even started making them play more like their respective players. ElliBot was more aloof and typically played as the Sniper while Jake BOT would attempt to cause as much chaos as possible with the Spy. The operant word there is "try." Jake is a smart guy but he sucked at TF2. Kyle even made a new bot modeled after himself, a Demoman named "Kyle BOT." He would always laugh at himself for using the full Santa Claus gear so he made his Demoman wear all read and a large beard. But that narcissistic maniac decided that he'd make his not the most overpowered thing he could. It would snipe you out of the air at any point and moved absurdly fast. We never really allowed that one to be played. 

Kyle asked me once if I wanted a bot of my own. "I'd be the same Scout that you play, stupid skins and all" he told me. He said it would model the same way I played so naturally I said yes because it sounded cool. 

That's the end of  **a** story but not the end of this one.

Kyle's account has been offline for over two years now. Nothing's changed either. It's still got the same stupid-looking Demoman profile picture and badge count. The server is still technically up and running since he bought a lifetime subscription to the host but it hasn't been played on in years. Hard to play a game when you aren't around to play it anymore.

In short, Kyle crashed his car.

I really didn't think much of it that night. It was just like any other night. After a long-fought battle against bots, Kyle said that he was sleepy but wanted to get some food from a joint down the road. I know it was late. I know that he probably shouldn't have been driving but it isn't like it was a huge deal, right? Before he hopped in his beloved, "second girlfriend" Dodge Charger, he mentioned something that I can't remember. It might seem pretty insignificant but it eats away at me every day that I can't remember what it was. Maybe it was something profound or maybe it was just more trash talk about my mother. The fact is that I can't remember and it bugs me. After that he ended the call and disconnected. No fanfare, no goodbye. 

I miss him. He was my best friend in highschool. I don't know if this was a good idea or not but I recently decided to boot up TF2 for the first time in years. The server list even had Kyle's old server in my favorites. 

Sending client info…

The game sprang to life. The twang of the character select screen blared loud enough to surprise me. Did this game get louder in recent years? My Scout looked just as ridiculous as ever wearing his Halloween skin and crazy hat. A few clicks later and the server began spawning waves of bots. Plenty of typical bots with lame names would spawn in and be quickly replaced whenever they were killed. Eventually I noticed a undisguised Spy circling around my character, "Jake BOT" He wasn't that difficult to take out. The nearly-deafening sound of a Sniper's rifle blasted through my left headphone cup. The screen suddenly put up a cheeky message reading "You were just eliminated by ElliBot." Regardless of the year, Elliot is only ever seen in the killcams and nowhere else. 

In the nearly the same second I had spawned in I was instantly gunned down by something that seemed to be obviously cheating. There was nearly no way to get out of the spawn room. "Kyle BOT" was back.

It took me hours to finally figure out the flaws in Kyle's highschool programming. After a while, I found myself trash talking the robot just like if he was the one controlling it. I didn't even care that it wasn't real. For a moment, I was back in highschool with my friends. It took me hours but I had done it. I had beaten Kyle BOT. But just like Kyle leaving, his bot didn't have any fanfare or any tearstained goodbye. Instead, he was just replaced by another faceless robot in an old game. But it didn't matter. The moment may have been fleeting and overall meaningless to anyone else but to me, for just one moment, I was able to move on. I haven't played TF2 much since opening that server but that's okay. I'm moving on. I chose to let Kyle BOT stay eliminated and now, I'm playing Overwatch with new friends and I guarantee that they won't beat my own bot that easy.


End file.
